Blitzing The Count's Discipline today with Maddie and Renee!

Wednesday is usually visual inspiration day around here, and I promise you'll have a wonderful pic and a hot story tomorrow, with at least a bit of analysis on Friday, but to ring in the new year I'm visiting not one but TWO wonderful colleagues' blogs: Maddie Taylor Romance (with a smoking hot voyeuristic sex scene) and Renee Rose Romance (with the lead-up to a spanking in a nunnery for, er, immodesty).

What better, since I don't think there's any doubt that The Count's Discipline is the most romantic book I've ever written!

Genealogical Spanking: The Count's Discipline

I venture to say that's a phrase you never expected! What can genealogy and spanking have to do with one another? The answer is in my fun new medieval spanker (I think I may have coined "spanker"--it's like "oater," the word for a Western that's admissible in Scrabble. . .).

The Count's Discipline begins with a little section in which I write as myself, and talk about how I "found" the chronicle that makes up most of the book. It's even true of my "actual" self that I get obsessed and lose hours and hours to trying to fill in the little gaps in my family history in the medieval period. I'm from an old New England family on one side, and that means--mostly because of the snobbery of the 19th-century Bostonians--that I have documented links to the royal houses of Medieval Europe (unless of course, as is very possible and has been proven in several cases, some of the amateur genealogists of the 19th century forged those links!).

I'm really not exaggerating, then, about how it's changed my view of the medieval period, when I open The Count's Discipline thus:

I go through periods during which I'm obsessed with genealogy and family-history, the further back the better. It's given me a great deal of pleasure over the years to reach far back into the past and to touch the life of for example a 28th great-grandfather who conquered England. 1066 never meant much to me until I realized that the guy who so rudely did the conquering, William the Bastard, was my grandpa plus 28. 

Most of the sources I find while doing this kind of work are pretty dry. Late one night clicking through some newly digitized records, however, I found a document about an obscure ancestor of mine that, thanks to my classical training, I was able immediately to recognize was quite different. 

First I noticed that the narrator seemed to be using the Latin word for "ass" or "bottom" a lot. The first time I ran across the Latin phrase that I realized had to mean "spank" I knew I had something really special. And then I hit the first sex-scene, where an unsuspecting young count Robert gets a blow-job (seriously!) from his more experienced countess. 

I don't think I've ever been quite as diligent in my Latin translation as when, with one hand on my keyboard and the other, um, elsewhere, I rendered the scene where the count has all the women of Beaumont-sur-Louen stripped naked and spanked in the market square. 

And I'm not even telling you about the incredible (and incredibly hot) love story between the narrator and the count. I don't want to spoil it--but I promise you, if you push through all the medieval stuff at the beginning, you're not going to be disappointed! 

So I present the first part of the document here, translated and in certain respects modernized. From time to time I intrude, to offer such annotations as I hope may be helpful. I hope you get as much pleasure as I have from 

The Private History of Robert de Lourcy, Comte de Gassein, and of his so-called "monstrous" practices of discipline 

as written and gathered by a chronicler appointed by him, Sophia by name, born in Rouen nineteen years before Duke William's conquest of England

Here's the blurb! Buy the book by clicking here!

When Robert de Lourcy’s wife spurns his desire to spank her, the young count contents himself with disciplining other women of the court, until a rash decision to chastise the women of a captured castle arouses the ire of the local bishop and Robert is forced to seek absolution. In an act of penance, he visits a cathedral and stumbles upon a young girl named Sophia who has been set upon by robbers. Remembering his promise make amends for his sins, Robert takes pity on the destitute child, placing her in a convent so that she may be properly educated.  

When Sophia comes of age, the nuns at the convent grow more firm with her. The young woman is simultaneously drawn to their discipline but also unconvinced that their motivations are particularly noble. After Sophia’s education is complete, Robert brings her into his household to serve as his secretary. Though he has decided never again to spank another woman, when Sophia begs him to chastise her as the nuns did he cannot resist the opportunity to take her over his knee.  

The two begin a happy relationship based on Sophia’s acceptance of the count’s discipline, but he remains devoted to his wife until she dies tragically in childbirth. After that sad event, Sophia expects the count to marry another noblewoman, but will that new wife be jealous and send her away? Is she doomed to be cast back onto the streets from whence she came, or will Robert break the shackles of society and wed a commoner?  

Publisher’s Note: The Count’s Discipline is an erotic novel that includes spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.  

Also note that this book is written with a unique style: the story is told through a modern woman who has discovered an account of the life of Robert de Lourcy which was written by his secretary and chronicler, Sophia.

(If you happen to be interested in the genealogical side of things, there are a great many resources available these days--I'd be happy to point you in some helpful directions!)

A terrible price for angry words: The Count's Discipline #SatSpanks

In The Count's Discipline, Sophia, the narrator-heroine, is constantly provoked by Countess Richildis' ladies-in-waiting. One of the most important moments of the story comes when Sophia loses her temper and is overheard calling Lady Agnes, "vile trash."

I knew what I must do: I kissed the rod, even as another sob came from me at the thought of what must now befall my bottom. 

The rod was removed; I closed my eyes. I heard the count move into position at my left, felt him lay his left hand upon the strap that held me at my waist. 

"Sophia, for this fault of conduct, you are to have thirty-six blows of the rod." 

"No, my lord," I cried. "Oh, please, please, no." 

He told me, later, that he felt that the only way that there would be any hope of keeping the peace was for him to beat me so severely that there was no doubt at all that he had done as Lady Richildis had asked. At that same time, he begged my pardon a thousand times that despite his love for me he nevertheless enjoyed beating me so much that he several times nearly forgot himself.

Here's the blurb! Click here to buy the book at Amazon.

When Robert de Lourcy’s wife spurns his desire to spank her, the young count contents himself with disciplining other women of the court, until a rash decision to chastise the women of a captured castle arouses the ire of the local bishop and Robert is forced to seek absolution. In an act of penance, he visits a cathedral and stumbles upon a young girl named Sophia who has been set upon by robbers. Remembering his promise make amends for his sins, Robert takes pity on the destitute child, placing her in a convent so that she may be properly educated.  

When Sophia comes of age, the nuns at the convent grow more firm with her. The young woman is simultaneously drawn to their discipline but also unconvinced that their motivations are particularly noble. After Sophia’s education is complete, Robert brings her into his household to serve as his secretary. Though he has decided to never spank another woman again, when Sophia begs him to chastise her as the nuns did he cannot resist the opportunity to take her over his knee.  

The two begin a happy relationship based on Sophia’s acceptance of the count’s discipline, but he remains devoted to his wife until she dies tragically in childbirth. After that sad event, Sophia expects the count to marry another noblewoman, but will that new wife be jealous and send her away? Is she doomed to be cast back onto the streets from whence she came, or will Robert break the shackles of society and wed a commoner?  

Publisher’s Note: The Count’s Discipline is an erotic novel that includes spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.  

Also note that this book is written with a unique style: the story is told through a modern woman who has discovered an account of the life of Robert de Lourcy which was written by his secretary and chronicler, Sophia.

Read all the Saturday Spankings!

What Sophia and Caroline have in common: The Count's Discipline and Caroline's Rocking Horse

The vicissitudes of the publishing world meant that I released two books, Caroline's Rocking Horse and The Count's Discipline, within a week of one another. Ostensibly, though both are spanking books, they lie in completely different sub-genres: ageplay and historical respectively.

Releasing them so close together, though, has made me think about the similarities in my two narrator-heroines: Sophia, orphan daughter of a prostitute in the 11th Century, and Caroline, privileged academic in the 21st. One similarity came immediately to mind, of course: they both long to submit to men who seem not just protective and dominant, but also wise and kind.

Here's how it is for Sophia, who begs Count Robert, renowned for spanking all the women of a captured castle, to spank her, too:

"My lord, I beg of you. Please show me that I have come into your service in very fact. I have dishonored you with my ingratitude and my resentment of your bringing me to Lourcy." 

"That is not at all what I have heard of your conduct, Sophia." 

"I have not shown it. I know I have not. But I shall. Such things I wish to say to Lady Agnes, and to Lady Ermengilde, and even to your lady wife. Such things as should make the devil carry me away to his burning lake. Save me, my lord! I beg of you: chastise me with your loving hand and I know I shall be better able to keep my serpent's whore-tongue inside my mouth." I began to weep. 

"Sophia of Rouen! Never call yourself a whore!" He strode around his table, and towards me, and suddenly he was holding me firmly by the shoulders. But I could not look at him, and I struggled as I wept. "Sophia, listen to me." His voice was a low growl, now, like the snarl of a faithful dog who knows he must protect his flock in face of wolves. This wolf was the idea of my non-existence, but it was nonetheless a wolf: it wanted to devour me, and Robert stood squarely in its path. 

I still struggled. I felt that I was ten again, and now at last I was going to escape back into the streets of Rouen, to flee from this terrible world into which the count had, with his awful mercy, seduced me. I would be nothing again, and I wished to be nothing. 

But suddenly the count's left arm was around my waist, and he was bending down for some reason, and his right hand was lifting my gown and my chemise together, whose hems he was gathering into his left hand at my waist. 

And then Robert the Monster, Count of Gassein, spanked me, with his open hand, for the very first time. I knew from the moment I heard the sharp sound, and felt the sting, that I had been reclaimed, but now my mind echoed his own words: at what cost?

And here's how it is for Caroline, realizing that her husband George can be the fantasy Daddy for whom she has longed, and whom she has imagined so many times as she pleasured herself--in which act he has just caught her:

"I'm going to raise your nightgown now, Caroline," he said. "Girls who have played with their panties down must learn to take their punishment with their panties down." 

I couldn't help it; I moaned. There was something about the direction his performance was going that made me think things were about to get even hotter. A paternal note was creeping into his words. 

"Caroline," he said, "you should be ashamed of yourself. What is that wanton sound I just heard from you?" He raised the hem of my nightgown and placed it on the small of my back, laying open before him my panty-clad bottom. "Little girls in flowered cotton panties should not make that kind of sound, should they?" 

Then it happened. Without forethought, I said, "No, Daddy." 

There was a long silence. Then George said in a thick voice, "Daddies sometimes have to spank their little girls don't they?" 

"Yes, Daddy," I replied. 

We were through the looking glass. I waited with commingled trepidation and arousal for his next command. Surely my new daddy would know what to do next.

Also, they both masturbate a lot, I suppose, and like to be punished for it. I can't think where they get that particular trait. 

A reluctant countess and a willing handmaiden: The Count's Discipline released today!

One of my favorite moments in The Count's Discipline is the first spanking Count Robert ever administers, which he bestows upon his new wife's handmaid Marguerite after the countess herself has refused to accept his chastening hand:

As Robert began to practice, for the first time, the disciplinary art for which he would one day be more famous than he would have wished, upon the young bottom of Marguerite, the girl's sobs were transformed into a low panting. Robert had always imagined what a bare female bottom under his corrective hand might feel like; the sensation surpassed his fondest dreams. 

Marguerite, who had been saying, "Oh, please, sir. . . it hurts. . . please, stop. . . your lady wife. . .," was now saying only "My lord. . . my lord. . . ."

Here's the blurb (click here to buy the book at Amazon!): 

When Robert de Lourcy’s wife spurns his desire to spank her, the young count contents himself with disciplining other women of the court, until a rash decision to chastise the women of a captured castle arouses the ire of the local bishop and Robert is forced to seek absolution. In an act of penance, he visits a cathedral and stumbles upon a young girl named Sophia who has 0been set upon by robbers. Remembering his promise make amends for his sins, Robet takes pity on the destitute child, placing her in a convent so that she may be properly educated. 

When Sophia comes of age, the nuns at the convent grow more firm with her. The young woman is simultaneously drawn to their discipline but also unconvinced that their motivations are particularly noble. After Sophia’s education is complete, Robert brings her into his home to serve as his secretary. Though he has decided to never spank another woman again, when Sophia begs him to chastise her as the nuns did he cannot resist the opportunity to take her over his knee. 

The two begin a happy relationship based on Sophia’s acceptance of the count’s discipline, but he remains devoted to his wife until she dies tragically in childbirth. After that sad event, Sophia expects the count to marry another noblewoman, but will that new wife be jealous and send her away? Is she doomed to be cast back onto the streets from whence she came, or will Robert break the shackles of society and wed a commoner? 

Publisher’s Note: The Count’s Discipline is an erotic novel that includes spankings, anal play, graphic sexual scenes, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book. 

Also note that this book is written with a unique style. The story is told through a modern woman who has discovered an account of the life of Robert de Lourcy which was written by his secretary and chronicler, Sophia.

The spanked castle: The Count's Discipline Cover Reveal

I'm thrilled to introduce the third "real book" I wrote, after those friends encouraged me at the end of the summer. This one is dear to my heart because it began in an attempt to imagine myself into the shoes of my medieval ancestors. I have a 28th great-grand-uncle named Robert de Bellême, who by all accounts was a really nasty guy. Moreover, he was clearly an early BDSM aficionado, in an age long before Safe, Sane, and Consensual.

What, I asked myself, if he had really been a spanko?

The moment when the legend of Robert the Monster, 5th Count of Gassein was born came at the very start of that long afternoon in the market square of Beaumont-sur-Louen, with the exemplary punishment of the baroness and her sisters, who claimed descent from Charlemagne and Merovech. Robert, still in his armor, strode straight up to her backside and, giving his gauntlets to his squire, began to stroke it. Well I know that knowledgeable exploration! His hand was never lewd when the occasion was not a lewd one, but always didactic, carrying in the count's fingertips this lesson, above all: "Now you will be chastised, and is it not a shameful thing that you should be thus punished upon your bare rump?"

The book comes out tomorrow--here's the blurb!

When Robert de Lourcy’s wife spurns his desire to spank her, the young count contents himself with disciplining other women of the court, until a rash decision to chastise the women of a captured castle arouses the ire of the local bishop and Robert is forced to seek absolution. In an act of penance, he visits a cathedral and stumbles upon a young girl named Sophia who has been set upon by robbers. Remembering his promise make amends for his sins, Robet takes pity on the destitute child, placing her in a convent so that she may be properly educated. 

When Sophia comes of age, the nuns at the convent grow more firm with her. The young woman is simultaneously drawn to their discipline but also unconvinced that their motivations are particularly noble. After Sophia’s education is complete, Robert brings her into his household to serve as his secretary. Though he has decided to never spank another woman again, when Sophia begs him to chastise her as the nuns did he cannot resist the opportunity to take her over his knee. 

The two begin a happy relationship based on Sophia’s acceptance of the count’s discipline, but he remains devoted to his wife until she dies tragically in childbirth. After that sad event, Sophia expects the count to marry another noblewoman, but will that new wife be jealous and send her away? Is she doomed to be cast back onto the streets from whence she came, or will Robert break the shackles of society and wed a commoner? 

Publisher’s Note: The Count’s Discipline is an erotic novel that includes spankings, anal play, graphic sexual scenes, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book. 

Also note that this book is written with a unique style: the story is told through a modern woman who has discovered an account of the life of Robert de Lourcy which was written by his secretary and chronicler, Sophia.